Fanfic / A Demon Among Devils

A Demon Among Devils by Crimson Lord is a crossover between High School D×D and Persona 3.

Minato Arisato wakes to find that Elizabeth has freed him from the Great Seal and dropped him off in this new world, where devils, fallen, and angels dwell. Accepting his circumstances, he settles into his ordinary life within it until Issei comes to him and asks what he would do if a friend were in danger. From there he finds himself standing before the fallen, Raynare, who passes her judgement on him. Refusing to be judged, he summons the power of the Personas he carries within the Sea of Souls, thus beginning the story.

The ramifications of his Personas—among which are Celestial Paragons and Archangels and Demon Lords and Archdevils—ripple out further and further as the story develops, and Minato finds himself increasingly involved with the cosmic struggles between the factions...

Updates ceased in 2016, before the author released a new chapter on SpaceBattles in late October 2023, which can be read here.

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Tropes found in this fanfiction:

• Accidental Kiss: Minato deliberately invokes this between Issei and Asia when he "accidentally" trips Issei while the two were trying to admit they like each other. He later does the same thing between Koneko and Issei after Koneko asks him to.
• Adaptational Badass: The Persona universe in general is given this treatment in the fanfic. This is a conscious decision by the author, who states the Persona part of the story is derived from the author's own take and experiences of Persona 3 game, and not necessarily canon lore facts and details.
  • The most obvious example being Minato's Personae. In the games Personae are Shadows shaped by experiences and thoughts into approximations of various identities within the sea of hearts. As such, while their abilities and traits are modelled after legends and myths, a Persona can only be as powerful as the user's spiritual strength; most human Persona users including the protagonists can hardly express powers approaching actual gods of the world except in special circumstances. But in this story, it's emphasized Personae always interpret things literally, to the point Minato claims it's why they are so powerful. Early on, he even monologues how his more powerful Personae can break the world and bend laws of reality with few limitations even before the end of his Journey; whereas the only times Persona 3 Protagonist could conceivably demonstrate such displays of power are during manga version of the final battle or after acquiring the Universe Arcana.
  • Minato's final battle to create Great Seal also sees this trope being abused extensively for Erebus. In the games, Erebus is just another deity born from the collective consciousness, and nowhere near the strongest among its kind either; its most dangerous quality is the fact it has Resurrective Immortality and will never truly die as long as humanity continues to wish for Death. But the fanfic instead attempts to explain the reason Erebus was so weak when the rest of S.E.E.S faced it is because Minato's Great Seal had weakened it down to a point where S.E.E.S could defeat it. Prior to that, it is an apocalyptic abomination capable of taking on Minato's entire army of Personae and expect to win.
• Adaptational Personality Change: Notably for Death/Pharos/Ryoji Mochizuki/Thanatos, as well as Nyx. The author writes Death and the Persona Thanatos as one in the same (which isn't the case in the games), and characterizes the entity as an Omnicidal Maniac embodying murderous intent and hatred against all life (which clashes heavily with the Affably Evil Reluctant Monster Ryoji); while Nyx is written as a condescending, judgmental being who actively moves to end all life while lamenting over the loss of "human potential" which is not even remotely close to the Blue-and-Orange Morality Cosmic Entity of the games.
• Adaptation Expansion: The author makes a point to focus a lot of attention on expanding the world-building and repeating canon events of Dx D in ways more sensible for the setting's scale. For example, the peace conference between the Three Factions isn't just the three faction heads sitting around a coffee table, it's an immense gathering of hundreds of politicians and onlookers and representatives and spokespeople and honor guards for most of the above.
• Agony of the Feet: When Minato has a rematch with Issei in chapter 21 he certainly didn't expect Issei to kick him in the shin of all things as an opening move. He retaliates by shooting Issei in the same spot with a Megido and the whole thing just degenerates from there.
• All Your Base Are Belong to Us: In chapter 16, the peace conference between the Three Factions is attacked by the Khaos Brigade with an army of brainwashed Sacred Gear Users, magicians, Fallen Angels and Nidhogg. In addition, Old Satan loyalists are revealed to have been hiding among the Underworld faction and have also attacked, preventing the devils from evacuating their civilians.
• Ancient Artifact: A few kinds in the story.
  • Sacred Gears, powerful items with incredible power crafted by the Biblical God and bestowed upon humanity. It is primarily due to these that humans are sought out by various supernatural creatures in the world. Among them, 13 unique Sacred Gears are in a class on their own and are called the 13 Longinus.
  • Both the Grigori and the Khaos Brigade have so far experimented with creating Artificial Sacred Gears, though they are generally not as strong as originals.
  • Other than Sacred Gears, various weapons from ancient mythology, distinct from Sacred Gears, are also shown to exist with great powers in their own right.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: According to Fafnir, one of the reasons for Ddraig being considered to be among the mightiest of dragons is due to him defeating every other famous dragon in history in battle at some point in his life.
• Attack! Attack... Retreat! Retreat!: When Issei charges up his Wave-Motion Gun style attack and prepares to fire it a Kokabiel, Koneko declares that they have won. After Issei (somehow) misses his target, Koneko declares that they have lost.
• Badass Boast: Almost every time a Persona is summoned, you can expect this. Kokabiel got in one too.
• The Beautiful Elite: Whenever we're introduced to devil society, we're almost inevitably flooded by Description Porn of all the wealth that devils tend to flaunt around with abandon. It's usually a reliable sign that the ones doing the flaunting is a member of the original Pillar clan of devils due to the fact that most lesser clans and reincarnated devils don't have such wealth to throw around so casually.
• Big Damn Heroes: A lot.
  • Takes the cake in chapter 13. First, the Knights Templar arrive chanting a revised version of their creed to help the devils. Then came the three Fallen Angels that were with Raynare. Then Minato himself arrive. And at the end? The seven strongest Archangels - Metatron, Sandalphon, Raphael, Michael, Gabriel, Uriel and Melchizedek - appear on the battlefield themselves.
  • At the end of chapter 17, when all hope seems lost, Issei somehow manages to bring forth Minato's Persona Nidhogg to challenge the DxD version.
• The Big Damn Kiss: In chapter 22, after the climax of Minato's exhibition match against the Occult Research Club, at the end Rias and Minato's conversation the two finally kiss. In front of a live audience no less.
• Bodyguarding a Badass: The Knight Templars and Hospitallers decide to act as Minato's personal bodyguard and custodians.
• Bolivian Army Ending: In chapter 16, when the gathering between the Three Factions are shown the battle against Erebus, the last thing shown is Metatron and Belial standing back to back as they face down Erebus and an army of Shadows.
• Brain Bleach: Issei, once he found out about an official Yaoi book featuring him and Minato, said this almost word for word.
  Issei: I think I need to bleach my brain now.
• Breather Episode: Minato and the others get some well-deserved time off in the Underworld after the climactic battle at the peace conference.
• Broken Pedestal:
  • Jeanne from the Hero Faction when she faces off against the Persona version of Joan of Arc. Amusingly, she reacts much like a Persona character encountering their Shadow for the first time.
  • Most of the Exorcists, including the Knights Templar and the Knights Hospitaller, employed by the Church develop this towards the higher ups within the Church once it's revealed that they've been concealing the fact that God is dead.
• Bystander Syndrome: Minato's greatest fear and Berserk Button. Due to having lived life feeling apathetic towards everything, having only truly lived during his time with SEES then dying because of Apathy, many of his decisions are motivated by fear of just standing by and letting others get hurt. It's one of the few things that can make him Not So Stoic.
• Celestial Paragons and Archangels: Minato summons all the Archangels to deal with the Fallen.
• Chekhov's Gun: In chapter 4, DxD's Metatron's spear, Inaerion, was briefly mentioned to have been hurled back into heaven upon his death to keep it from becoming a Battle Trophy and left in the Antechamber of Thrones because no one could move it during a larger explanation of the Great War. In chapter 15, when Raynare returns as the Archangel of Vengeance, Inaerion is summoned from heaven by the Persona version of Metatron and bestowed upon her.
• Chick Magnet: Issei has Asia, Koneko and Irina as usual, but here Minato attracts Rias, Akeno and even Raynare.
  • Clueless Chick-Magnet: Issei, as usual. Minato WAS this back when he was with SEES, with predictable results.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: Minato has a tendency to help not only those he avoids, but also his former enemies. He allows the Fallen Angels to live due to their chance at redemption for their lives, he offers to help Rias avoid the Arranged Marriage despite how he initially had no reason to help, and he heals Riser's peerage after they were all gunning for him during the Rating Game.
• Civil War: Directly after the Great War a resistance comprised of Devils who wanted the Great War to stop formed and fought against the Old Satan Faction of Devils who wanted to fight until both the Angel and Fallen Angel Factions were dead even if it meant extinction for their own race. The resistance won and form the present Devil society in the Underworld.
• Comedic Spanking: Like in canon, Rias spanks Issei and Koneko for going off to confront Freed without her permission. Minato, having feared Rias would torture them, is dumbfounded. She misinterprets his reaction and asks if he wishes to spank them, causing him to give a rare laugh.
• The Comically Serious: Minato reacts to nearly everything with complete and utter deadpan. The humorous effect is easy to see.
• Conservation of Ninjutsu: Averted for the most part.
  • During Riser's Rating Game against Rias, it's noted that many of his pieces are actually inferior in quality when compared to Rias's and he only manages to gain the advantage thanks to leveraging his superior numbers to separate and take down each of her pieces individually.
  • Outright inverted with the Knights Templar, whose holy blessings are explicitly more effective the more of them there are.
• Covert Pervert: Asia, who sneaks off to buy a copy of an expy of Fifty Shades of Grey featuring Issei and Minato.
• Crisis of Faith: Many of the exorcists employed by the Church, including the Knights Templar, Hammerhands, Knights Hospitaller, go through this upon learning that God is dead and that the higher ups within the church had been concealing the fact from them. While they still maintain their faith in their religion, they no longer trust the Church to adequately lead them.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: So far, everyone who has directly battled a Persona is on the receiving end of one. Understandable, considering many of them are just ordinary entities fighting their equivalent of living legends.
  • Minato gives one to Issei during their match after equipping Nidhogg to himself.
  • Kokabiel delivers one to Kiba, Irina, Tsubaki and Xenovia so badly that he almost kills them even though he was clearly just playing around. Asia is the only reason they manage to survive to regroup and they opt to temporarily retreat rather than fight him again.
  • The Archangels and Thanatos quickly turn the tide against the two-hundred or so Fallen Angels. In fact, the author mentions playing the Curbstomp Song for this part.
• Darker and Edgier: From the beginning it goes straight into this territory. The enemies are much more serious threats and the battles far bloodier. Also, while the story still has ample amounts of comedy in it, comedy no longer directly influences the plot as much as it did in canon. Case in point, Issei has yet to gain a single power-up or win a single battle by way of Pervert Power.
• Darkest Hour: Nidhogg's counterattack in chapter 17.
• Dare to Be Badass: The Persona Nidhogg encourages Issei this way, challenging him to work until the day he is worthy of inheriting Ddraig's power.
• Date Peepers: When Rias and Minato go shopping together near the end of chapter 20, the entire Occult Research Club, Raynare and her Fallen Angels, and the Knights Templar end up following them. Rias tricks them into thinking they're visiting a love hotel together.
  Minato: You know, you can be quite evil sometimes.
  Rias: Of course. I am, after all, a devil.
• Demon Lords And Arch Devils: The leaders of the devils, most of whom assemble after the Rating Game where Minato summons Belial.
• Demoted to Extra: Issei is still a prominent side character and is still picking up his share of the female cast but the story is told almost entirely from Minato's point of view, and Rias winds up fixating on him rather than Issei.
• Despair Event Horizon: According to Raynare, all Angels that become Fallen experience something similar to this during the process. Usually, the Fallen will eventually come to terms with it to some extent and some, typically those that choose to fall willingly, even come to revel in their Fallen status.
• Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors
  • Mentioned where Minato initially wanted to use Thanatos or another similar Persona against the Fallen Angels to take advantage of their affinity for light and accompanying weakness to dark.
  • During the initial fight against the Knights Templar, their holy blessings allows them to greatly weaken the devils and their weapons likewise act like poison to them due to being infused with holy energy. They're shown to be similarly effective against Fallen Angels when the Knights Templar show up and save the struggling Occult Research Club and the Student Council against Kokabiel's Fallen Angel army, unfortunately Kokabiel himself is powerful enough to just brute force through their runes and blessings.
• Eldritch Abomination: Erebus and Trihexa both fit this bill, being unfathomably powerful creatures that would cause The End of the World as We Know It if they are ever unleashed as well as being virtually impossible to kill, such that the most that could be done against them was seal them away. This isn't a coincidence, as they are implied to be similar in nature to each other.
• End of an Age: It's been discussed that for all intents and purposes, the days when the Supernatural Factions of the world were the supreme powers that ruled are over and that it has now become the age for humans to govern the world. Defying this was DxD Nidhogg's motivation for attacking the peace conference.
  • The birth of the three factions (The Angels, Fallen and Devils) was also the end of the age of the old gods. It's why they're afraid of the new alliance that's about to be bithed.
• Enemy Mine:
  • Although they personally aren't enemies, when Xenovia and Irina are sent to retrieve the Excaliburs they enlist the help of several devils and Minato, due to knowing that they couldn't do it on their own.
  • Though reluctant, Rias and Sona's group ally themselves with the Knights Templar and later a few Fallen Angels in repelling Kokabiel's forces.
  • This is later invoked by Metatron, Belial and Helel as part of their reason for why the Three Factions should cooperate and ally with each other; the mere existence of beings such as Trihexa and Erebus would need everyone working together to even hope to stand a chance should they ever awaken.
• Epic Fail: Issei gets his thunder-cannon to boost up to the max for the first time and aims it towards Kokabiel, with everyone thinking it could mean victory for them... He misses, without the Fallen Angel even bothering to move.
  • Fafnir mentions that for a dragon to miss with their ultimate attack is an embarrassment of the highest order. Later on we discover that other people in the Underworld are commenting that he can't hit anything.
  • When Kiba misses his own attack against FREAKING NIDDHOG, Issei pays him back.
• Expy: All sides of the DxDverse practically correlate to the SMTverse on the series' alignment, with the Angels of the Lawful (usually Lawful Good), the Fallen on either Neutral side, and the Devils/Demons on... well, almost anywhere except Lawful Good, with the Hero Faction going for True Neutral for only humanity's sake. Then it gets funny when Minato summons the Personas to represent each side during the meeting, those being Metatron of the Angels, Belial of the Devils, and Helel of the Fallen Angels.
  • The Knights Templar and all related Church Militant Super-Soldier factions are basically Space Marines.
• Failed a Spot Check: In chapter 22, during the last segments of Minato's match against the Occult Research Club while he doesn't fail to notice that Rias was hanging back the entire back he does fail to notice that Issei has secretly given Rias a power up using the transfer function on Boosted Gear. To be fair, up until now Minato hasn't actually seen Boosted Gear's Transfer in effect so him not noticing is justifiable.
• Famed In-Story: Champions and leaders from each faction have been introduced that are noted to have distinguished themselves during the Great War and are already well known among the Three Factions. Then there are those mythological figures that have existed well before the Great War and who's presence almost certainly means that they have fought and won against some the greatest each faction had to offer who's mere existences are revered and feared by allies and enemies respectively. Minato's Personas are also this and mostly fall into the latter category.
• Fear Is the Appropriate Response: Thanatos prompts this from everyone. All the Fallen Angels are willing to fight the Archangels as brothers-in-arms, knowing that death would be the end. But Thanatos they run from futilely, throwing each other towards him to try and escape.
• Fire-Forged Friends: Part of the reason it turns out Metatron and Belial seem to get along so well was partly due to the two of them being among the last remaining when battling against Erebus and the Shadows, complete with a Back-to-Back Badasses moment.
• Follow the Leader: Well-known for the style of a Persona's Invocation when it is summoned, to the point that other authors have tried re-imagining it in their own works.
• Harmless Freezing: Zeruel when he gets hit by Nidhogg's ice breath at point-blank range, it is explicitly mentioned that he was frozen down to his organs and blood but it's implied that his survival was due to his power as an Archangel. Rias later goes through this as well, although she was "merely" encased in ice rather than frozen solid.
• Heel–Face Turn:
  • Dohnaseek, Kalawarna and Mittelt are each given a mark of penance by Metatron which would allow them to redeem their status as Angel. They eventually help out and betray Kokabiel when he assaults Kuoh Academy.
  • The Knights Templar aid the devils in their defence of Kuoh Academy after Uriel defeated them in the cathedral. Since they're religious zealots, it makes sense.
  • Raynare herself eventually does this after Minato brings her back to life.
• Heroic Second Wind: Once the Persona Nidhogg appears and uses Samarecarm to revive the fallen so that Asia can heal them, Nidhogg goes down.
• Hit-and-Run Tactics: Kiba, Xenovia and Irina use this strategy against Nidhogg, passing Ascalon to each other to keep Nidhogg off balance.
• Hope Spot: Working in tandem Rias' peerage and some of the Knights manages to kill Nidhogg. But wait! Turns out it has gained a Healing Factor that makes it too tough to kill and it uses the opening to take them down afterwards.
• Hypocrite: Cao Cao has to be one of the most disgusting examples ever seen. He claims to fight for humanity against forces that would use them for their own ends, while sending an army of mind controlled Sacred Gear users - including the elderly and children - against a peace summit. The worst part is that he refuses to even acknowledge the hypocrisy of his actions even when Minato points it out to him.
  • He acknowledges it in the next chapter, absolutely livid at the fact his enemy was right, as it is revealed the only reason he took the army and attacked was because they were foisted on him practically minutes beforehand. He gets called out by those he allied with on account of aligning with them when they weren't human either, which he also acknowledges to be right. He promptly leaves and takes the people seconds later.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice:
  • Minato gets Cao Cao's spear rammed straight through him. Doesn't kill him though.
  • In the next chapter, Cao Cao impales the assistant involved with the army of brainwashed Sacred Gear users because of having to put up with all the hypocrisy.
• Knight Templar: Literal Knights Templar, trained exorcists who act in a unit to overpower even high-level devils.
• Lemony Narrator: Not usually. Minato always tries to be as accurate and descriptive as possible in his narrations... Unless he's engaging in his more comedic behavior.
• Masquerade Ball: One is held for the Young Devil's Gathering in chapter 21. Originally it wasn't meant to be this but it's implied that Rias had Sirzechs pull some strings to get it arranged so that Minato wouldn't be at the centre of attention. Amusingly enough, Minato mentally notes how most of the devils made sure to have their family crests displayed prominently on their masks which pretty much defeats the point of wearing them in the first place.
• Metaphorically True: So far Minato has deliberately left out information about him being from another world when talking about his past. When Kiba surmises that SEES is overseas when it's mentioned that they are very far away, Minato says it's "something like that." He comes clean in Chapter 16.
• Mêlée à Trois: This is basically what the Great War boiled down to, with the Devil Faction, the Fallen Angel Faction and the Angel Faction each battling against each other and trying to wipe out the other two. Ultimately, it was the very real danger of Mutually Assured Destruction occurring, plus God's Heroic Sacrifice, that finally caused the Great War to stop, leading to all three factions to agree to an unofficial truce and entering a Cold War like period where each faction focused on replenishing their strength.
• Mirror Match: The end of chapter 17. Persona Nidhogg vs DxD Nidhogg!
• Mythology Gag: In chapter 20, the boy's attempts to peek on the girls in the bath and Minato catching them is a big one back to the Hot Springs Episode from Persona 3, up to and including Minato deciding to execute them à la Mitsuru style.
• Not Always Evil: Minato was originally thrown off when he finds that Rias, Sona and their Peerages are all completely normal, nice and friendly people due to his experiences with his Demon Persona. As it turns out the original 72 Pillars were Always Chaotic Evil and obscenely powerful, ruling over the underworld with an iron fist. However when all the originals were killed off during the Great War their descendants were given free reign to rule themselves and many decided that they no longer wanted to be the kinds of devils that lived for hatred, evil and destruction and rebelled. He thus makes the distinction: "Devils, not demons."
• Not So Above It All: Despite being stoic and logical, Minato is not above trolling people or engaging in Implausible Deniability when the situation calls for it.
• "Not So Different" Remark: Minato holds this opinion of humans and the other supernatural races of the Dx D world. When the Hero Faction try to convince him to join their cause, pointing out that each race has their share of good people, evil people and everything in-between and that no race should be judged based only on their good or bad points.
• Oblivious to Love: Issei again, but while Minato WAS like this before, he isn't like this now. Rather, he is instead oblivious to being matchmade, getting a strange nagging sensation whenever Sirzechs or Lord Gremory try to push him towards Rias yet never quite getting WHY these feelings are there.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome:
  • Happens regularly. Typically whenever Minato summons the Persona of an extremely powerful and famous mythological figure, once they've finished their entrance and are ready to open a can of ass kicking on their unfortunate enemies, the next scene cuts to the direct aftermath or even to events well after the battle. In some cases there are anachronistic scenes that go into what happened directly after the Persona is summoned but they typically end before the actual battle begins.
  • In chapter 17 Raynare manages to fight Vali to a draw offscreen.
• Oh, Crap!: Anytime anyone sees a Persona summoned against them for the first time, partly because that Minato tends to use ones that are significant to his current opponent in some way.
• The Power of Friendship: The Social Links that Minato made in his own world with SEES is what allowed him to gain so much power with his Personas. It's also implied that the Social Links that Minato can form are also having an effect on those that he is becoming close to, though it has the inverse effect of powering up Minato's friends rather then himself. This is how Issei gains his Arm Cannon and Dragon Summoning, Kiba gains Nihil Swords, and so on.
• Priceless Paperweight: Minato uses the Evil Pieces given to him… as ordinary chess pieces on a board. In general, Minato will do this with any relics and special artifacts they find, not out of humility or ignorance, but because he really doesn't have any other use for them. This is shown with the Excalibur pieces that Michael gives him—Michael thinks Minato plans on doing this, but instead Minato gives Xenovia and Irina one each and Kiba the remaining two, showing that once he finds a use for them, he'll use them properly.
• The Quiet One: Minato.
• Recognition Failure: The bookshop keeper in the Underworld fails to recognize Minato, despite mentioning he looked just like him and there's a billboard with him on it not too far away. It was the same for the little girl, Illyria. Apparently he's so famous no one could imagine him walking into their store.
• Red Baron: Minato is referred to by angels and fallen as the "Nephilim, the Exalted Among All Factions."
• Renegade Splinter Faction: The Knight Templars who sided with Freed. Later on they side with Minato, eventually serving under him.
• Running Gag:
  • No matter where Minato goes or where he tries to hide, Issei will always know exactly where to find him at any time during the day.
  • Sometimes Minato returns to his home ready to relax after a long day only to find someone already inside who wants to talk to him about something important. Becomes less funny at the end of chapter 14 when said people are the potentially hostile Hero Faction.
• Shoot the Medic First: During the Rating Game, Asia went down first. Nidhogg made damn sure Asia went down during the second round before she could revive anyone else.
• Shout-Out:
  • Several lines during the Persona summoning after lifted directly from sources such as The Lord of the Rings and World of Warcraft.
  • When Issei misses Kokabiel with his Wave-Motion Gun style attack despite him standing still, Kiba incredulously demands to know he missed a target right in front of him
  • Once the Persona Nidhogg and D×D Nidhogg begin battling in chapter 18. In response to Shemhazai asking whether they should interfere, Azazel gives us this:
  Let them fight.
• Slave Mooks: The sacred gear-users in Chapter 16. Men, women, children, as long as they could be used they kept fighting until they were taken to pieces.
• Spared by the Adaptation: Raynare as well as the fallen who were with her in the first chapter don't snuff it in the beginning. This is because Metatron wants to restore the heavens and all of them were capable of being redeemed... well, not Raynare initially, but Death Equals Redemption.
• Stating the Simple Solution:
  • During the planning process Rias and her Peerage go through in determining how they should use Minato's strength in the Rating Game against Riser, Kiba points out Minato could simply summon Nidhogg and have him blast Riser and his peerage to kingdom come straight off the bat. This is shot down due to the fact that a) normally Minato can only comfortably summon a single Persona and was currently using Belial to fool Rias's Evil Piece and b) Minato is still doing his best to remain under the radar of the Three Factions which wouldn't happen if he summons an infamous Evil Dragon in broad daylight.
  • When Issei asks Minato for advice with girls, Minato bluntly tells Issei to just tell Asia that he likes her. Issei seems to consider it a novel concept and is even somewhat bemused that it doesn't involve some sort of trial by combat.
    • Of course, when Issei then states that the best way to resolve his feelings for all the girls is to tell all of them he likes them AT THE SAME TIME...
  Minato: There is such a thing as too efficient.
• Sophisticated as Hell: The Paladin who strikes one of the final blows against Nidhogg gives us this very familiar, if revised, line:
  Though verily I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for I wield a hammer full of fuck you.
• The Stoic: Minato. The only thing that can regularly make him Not So Stoic is to push his Berserk Button of being apathetic.
• Take That!: One to both Fifty Shades of Grey and the author himself, when the group reads up on the horrifying "Fifty Shades of Nephilim and the Devil who Loved Me", Akeno sums up her feelings on the matter.
  That sounds like something only bad fanfiction authors would write.
• Tempting Fate:
  • Kokabiel mocks Rias and the others when they claim Minato will stop them and asks where is he now then. Minato raises his hand, revealing he's already there.
  • Zeruel demands a challenge when the Khaos Brigade attack the summit. He gets the actual Nidhogg.
  • After bringing down Nidhogg, Kiba remarks that the ending was almost anticlimactic. It turns out Nidhogg is nowhere near finished.
• Took a Level in Badass: To start with: Issei gains a thunder-cannon and the ability to summon Dragon Persona from Minato, Kiba gains the ability to create Nihil Weapons, and Raynare gains Metatron's legendary spear after being reborn as an Archangel.
• Trapped in Another World: Minato in a sense. Though he does still live in Japan, there are enough differences between his world and the Highschool DxD one that he quickly realises that he's not actually in his home world but in some sort of alternate reality.
• Training from Hell: In lieu of the Pervert Power that he relied on so much in canon, this version of Issei gets all his power-ups by training his butt off fighting Minato's dragon Personas like Fafnir and Nidhogg.
• True Companions: Minato and SEES were this. Most peerages seen so far also fall into this, with Rias, Sona and Riser's peerage's all demonstrating loyalty towards each other. Minato later comes to see his new friends as this as well.
• Undressing the Unconscious: When Minato awakens after spending the last four days in a coma, he's on a infirmary cot with Rias and Sirzechs. He suddenly notices with distress that he's completely naked under a Modesty Bedsheet, and has a delayed Naked Freak-Out once he realizes someone must have undressed him. Cue Rias letting out a perverted chuckle.
• Unreliable Narrator: Word of God mentions that this is Minato in Chapter 8. In particular, his initial assessment of Rias and her peerage has him judging them based on what he knows about Persona devils like Belial, who are Always Chaotic Evil. Eventually, he realizes his mistake and warms up to Rias and her peerage.
• Villainous Rescue: Twice in chapter 13. First when the Knights Templar arrive to help rout the Fallen Angels attacking Kuoh academy and later when Dohnaseek, Kalawarna Mittelt arrive and manage to distract Kokabiel long enough for Rias and Sona to escape him.
• Villainous Valor: Several antagonists have displayed this.
  • When Belial wipes out the rest of his Peerage, rather than try and escape again Riser attempts to fight back against Belial with a massive blast of fire. He accomplishes nothing but standing firm and trying to take on one of the original Archdemons definitely takes balls.
  • The remains of Kokabiel's Fallen Angel army are all veterans who immediately began working together flawlessly against the seven Archangels Minato summons even while knowing full well they stood no chance. It's subverted the moment Thanatos comes in, at which point, they become cowards and cravens. Not surprising.
• War Is Hell: Chapter 16 illustrates this very much.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: What Cao Cao sees himself as.
• Wham Episode: Chapter 16: The peace conference is attacked by the Khaos Brigade using legions of Brainwashed and Crazy Sacred Gear users, the Old Satan Faction uses the chance to attack the current Lucifer, there are still some fallen angels turning traitor, and Nidhogg, the real one, comes down to pick a fight with Zeruel.
• Wham Line: "That may be so, but Heaven never started this war. We never struck the first blow. The Great War was started when the devils and the Fallen killed the Son of God. It was started when your kind murdered the Messiah."
  • "Hello, Brother."
• The Worf Effect
  • Once Kokabiel appears, he spends the entire time demolishing anyone he comes across. Once Raynare is brought back as the Archangel of vengeance she effortlessly crushes him in turn.
  • In chapter 17, Zeruel is easily defeated by Nidhogg, right after he asked for a worthy opponent even.
• Worf Had the Flu: Rias's peerage defeat the summoned Personas of SEES for their challenge at the Devil Gathering , but Minato notes that he has trouble using them since they weren't born of his power, and that he has to control them all manually unlike his other sentient Personas. When they fight Orpheus Telos Minato applauds them for lasting as long as they do against it, fighting him in a lengthy battle until they collapse in exhaustion, but he internally admits that he was limiting himself to lower powered spells and attacks so they would be properly challenged, when he could have won instantly with his stronger attacks.
• Worthy Opponent
  • Belial and Metatron consider each other this.
  • A lot of dragons consider Ddraig to be this.
• You Shall Not Pass!: Villainous variation done by Vali who tries to bar the Occult Research Club and the Knights Templar from stopping Nidhogg, and reversed on him when Raynare appears to hold him off.
• Zerg Rush: How the Khaos Brigade uses their brainwashed Sacred Gear users. Everyone else is more skilled or powerful, but they are simply swamped.

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